Children Of Fate
A thin medium height man in a blue suit filled the doorway, “yes, what you want?” he barked.
“Ummm…” Tony started then caught the first words that drifted past his mind, “I’ve lost my budgie. I’m wondering if you have...”
“No I haven’t,” the man cut in.
Tony tried to sneak a glance down the corridor past the man. The wooden floorboards stretched down the corridor to the back door. An intricately engraved wooden staircase climbed up a third of the way in. It was free from any furniture apart from a metal umbrella holder at the foot of the staircase.
“Why don’t you buy yourself another one, it’s just a bird.”
“It wasn’t a bird it was my pet and my friend,” Tony faked and then focused on an object sitting in the umbrella holder. Tony recognized it straight away. The door shut in his face but he could still see the image of the object, it was burnt into his mind. The object was an engraved white cane.
Chapter 12
There they sat at the start of a new day in the seats of the cricket oval on the eastern side, facing the main grand stand. There they sat unbeknown to them that this was the last day they would spend living in the deceptive shadow of man.
The sun slowly climbed out of its sleep up behind them all. The shadow under the grandstand slowly crawled down the rows. Without any idea where the next clue was they sat back relaxed and made no attempt to search for it, but it was all part of the plan. They intended and risked relying on the other team; team Jerk to do all the work for them. All they had to do was just keep an eye on the team and when they looked like they had found the clue they would simply wonder over to where the clue was found. So they waited carefully watching the five members of team Jerk scavenging through seats, under benches and every other nook and cranny in the oval. They then curiously watched as the team disappeared out of sight under the grand stand.
“Tony go keep an eye on them, “Alicia demanded.
Tony shot a dagger over at her. He slowly pulled himself up and walked off mumbling under his breath.
Nadia stirred. The two choices battling it out in her head pushed her to the edge of her seat, but it was fate that finally persuaded her up and out of her seat. She skipped off and caught up with Tony and together they walked around to the grand stand to look for the other team.
Alicia shifted over and put an empty seat between her and Roy. Joel did the sane on the other side of Roy and kicked his feet up onto the seat in front. “Alicia why are you so bossy? You got to relax a bit,” Joel said.
“Don’t tell me what to do or be,” she snapped.
“Ha! What a hypocrite. But it’s alright for you to order people around,” Joel laughed. “Come on give just one reason why you’re so uptight.”
“Even if I did have one I wouldn’t tell you.”
Roy stuck in the middle flicked his head left and right watching the conversation like he was watching a Ping-Pong match. His head started to spin so he settled on watching the shadow of the stadium roof slowly creep down the rows of seats.
“So there is a reason. Don’t tell me then, say it loudly to Roy and let me over hear it.”
“Shut up,” Alicia yelled, her temper starting to build.
“We’re a team, tell me.”
“Team? It’s just a childish game and we are only here because the school doesn’t want us.”
“Yeah you couldn’t like this game because you might have fun, and Nooo we can’t have that. Suppose when you were a kid you also hated that too because it was to childish for you.”
“You don’t know anything about me Joel so just drop it.”
“Course I don’t,” Joel’s voice matching Alicia’s.” Nobody does. You treat everyone like dirt; you think you’re better than everyone else!” Joel yelled, hammering a finger towards Alicia.” Well I got a news flash for you, you're not. You breathe the same air as us and your piss runs into the same dam as the rest of ours.”
Alicia shot out of her seat, “BECAUSE I MADE A PROMISE TO MY DAD!” her eyes began to tear. She slowly sat herself back down.
“What promise?” Joel asked gently and moved into the empty seat beside her.
“When I was in year seven, I can’t believe I’m telling you this.” Alicia wiped her eyes before continuing. “One day dad came back from work and instead of coming straight inside to shower like he usually did he just sat down on the door step. I went up to him to ask what was wrong. When he turned I saw that he was crying. I’ve never seen him so vulnerable; he’s always been so strong and invincible. He quickly wiped his tears away, grabbed my shoulders and looked me in the eyes and asked, no not asked, begged me to make him a promise. He said Alicia you have to promise me that you will be the best you can be. Don’t ever be like me. Don’t treat school like a joke, study, not for the teachers but for you. Get yourself into a position where you can choose whatever job and life you want because if you don’t choose the path that you want life will choose it for you and life can be a dark sarcastic prick.” Alicia’s hair slid forward hiding her eyes from Joel as she lowered her head.
“Sorry Alicia I didn’t mean….”
“No, it’s ok. Sometimes I know I can overdo it, but I’ll always remember the look of pain in my dad's eyes, the pain of thinking he couldn’t give us a nice house, nice car, a fancy school for me. But one day I’ll help him get out of that crappy job of his.”
Joel put himself into the future thirty years and tried to think what he would want his daughter to tell him, and he surprised himself. “You know how you can help him. Go home make him a nice hot coffee ready for when he comes back from work. Then tell him that you love him, tell him not to worry about all that other crap because when little Alicia grows old; married and a mother to five kids”
Alicia flicked her hair back and laughed.
“You won’t remember all that. You will remember how he taught you how to ride a bike, drive a car and chase your first boyfriend away. You will remember how he single-handedly almost knocked the shed down to the ground when he clumsily tried to make you furniture for your first unit.”
Alicia turned to Joel. “I take back what I thought about you. You’re not always an idiot. You’re only sometimes an idiot.” Alicia laughed, “One part-time idiot in need of a shave.”
Roy’s eyes caught something on the far side of the grand stand.
“Now I told you something I haven’t told anybody I think you can tell me why you won’t shave off that snot catcher.”
Roy jumped up onto his seat and bobbed his head up and down, left and right like a prairie dog that has just sniffed danger in the air. “Hey guys I think I found it?” Roy said.
“YES, saved by the red head,” Joel said, relieved.
Roy’s movements had now become completely ludicrous, he ran up and down the row jumping and squatting. He then directed a finger at the grand stand on the far side.
Call it luck or fate or being in the perfect spot at the perfect time. The slight tilt on the row of chairs in the grandstand and the sun stepping up into the right place in the morning sky lit up the silver stickers on the seats and reflected the white light straight into Roy’s burning eyes.
“Those stickers on the seats,” Roy cried squinting from the piercing reflections. “It’s Morse code. I know Morse code,” Roy bound with excitement, jumped up and down on the seat.
Joel grabbed at Roy attempting to drag him back into his seat, “OK relax. If you pee your pants your off the team.”
Reading left to right across the seats Roy decoded the series of dots and dashes, “T twenty seven blink and you’ll kiss it.”
“kiss it?” Alicia said crossing her arms.
Joel went to run with the comment but thought twice and let it pass.
“Sorry, sorry dot dash is an m not a k. Blink and you'll miss it.”
Tony and Nadia on the far curve of the stadium watched Roy hop up and down on his seat flapping his arms like a seagull who has spotted a chip.
 
; “I guess that means he’s found the clue,” Tony said.
All the excitement brought team Jerk out from under the grandstand. How the tables have turned, now Roy’s antics was going to lead their opponents to the clue. Nadia thought fast. She spotted team Jerk emerging like a rat caught on the scent of a big piece of stinky cheese. Nadia had to throw them off the trial. She ran over to a nearby bin and pulled out an uninteresting empty plastic water bottle, “YES! I’VE FOUND THE CLUE!” she yelled waving the bottle above her head.
Tony picked up on the bluff and joined in, “OK we got the clue we’re coming over.”
The team took the bait, each member scrambled over to various bins scattered across the stadium. They picked a bin each and dived in head first. A colourful fountain of garbage spurted up out of each bin.
Nadia couldn’t help but raise a smile at her artistic creation.
“That’s one up on me,” Tony said impressed. “Five simultaneous bin dunkings without laying a finger on any of them.”
The curator wondering across the pitch inspecting it for imperfections didn’t take kindly to these kids soiling his oval. He ran over to them shouting uncensored instructions on what he would do to them if they did not put all that rubbish back in the bins.
Tony and Nadia chuckled as they ran back to Roy, Alicia and Joel.
“T Twenty seven?” pondered Alicia as they regrouped. And then in unison as if singing a song chorus they sung “TRAIN STATION.”
Chapter 13
The team waited impatiently on the dock facing the empty rail tracks.
“Is it too much to ask for a train to run on time,” Roy said glancing at his watch.
The dusty silver train arrived eight minutes and forty two seconds late according to Roy’s watch. The usual eleven am weekday crowd of very young and very old stepped out of the belly of the train, some holding canes and some holding prams. The students with a job to do scurried in at the first opportunity.
The interior of the train was in not much better condition as the outside of it. The maroon coloured bench seats were ripped, cracked and covered in graffiti. The floor was smudged with black grime and the warm cabin was a salad bowl of assorted body odors.
They all picked out seats by the windows for more than one reason. Tony, Roy and Nadia sat on the obvious left and Joel and Alicia on the right. Alicia cringed at the sight of old black chewing gum pasted on the wooden back rest and mysterious stains on the seat she was going to sit on but decided it was safer to stand. Alicia tightened her grip on a support bar as the train jerked forward then rolled on with a rhythmic clank, clank. The others pressed their faces closer to the windows waiting for a clue to flash past.
“So,” Alicia said to the back of Joel’s head.
“So what?” Joel replied, his focus still on the outside world flashing past the train.
“You’re not going to get away with it that easily,” Alicia said swaying slowly with the train. “The thing we were talking about back at the oval. Why don’t you get rid of that fluff under your lip?
Joel sat silent for a while looking for a way to get out of it but knew after she confided in him he had no choice, “Ahh, its stupid.”
“Not as stupid as the senseless graffiti scribbled on public train seats.”
“Ok, how can I put it?” Joel’s breath created a cloud next to the word STAGE scratched into the window. “If I do shave it, it’s like I’m turning my back on my childhood and walking into a horror movie, exciting but scary.” Joel turned to face Alicia, “I liked my childhood. No responsibilities, act like an idiot and everything’s fun.”
“We can’t stop growing old,” Alicia said.
“I told you it was stupid,” Joel said and dropped his head.
“No your pretty much spot on but we are the lucky ones, we’re walking into that scary world slowly. Others are slammed head first when a traumatic experience drags them in. So my advice is you don’t need to stop being who you are but don’t fight it or it will be taken away in a flash.”
Joel smiled and turned back to the window and let the train’s chant carry him away into thought.
Ten minutes and five seconds from the time they left the station Roy called out, “GOT IT!” He took out his notepad and jotted down the number four. “Back there on a new clean sign was the number four with a dash beside it which suggests a continuation.”
“Good work Roy,” Tony encouraged. “Heads up, if we miss one number we’ll probably have to go back and take this train trip again.”
At journeys end Roy had five digits scribbled down in his note pad; 4-7-2-3-5. The team poured out the stationary train and relished in the clean crisp air the surrounding trees exhaled. The station building of twenty meters by twenty meters watched down on to the single line track. The heritage listed building sat comfortably at the foot of a tree covered hill that climbed up behind it.
“I guess we go in then?” Alicia said pointing at the two massive wooden doors guarding the entrance to the station.
What drew their attention when they entered wasn’t the middle aged attendant grinning like an idiot from behind a clear Perspex security shield, or the simple furniture of yesteryear beautifully carved and made with pride from an era long lost; but to their right in an alcove which was once the station's master toilet, was a stack of out of place modern day lockers with a small digital number pad on each one. On the locker third from the left and fourth from the bottom was a yellow sign stuck on it with a big black question mark in its middle. Roy did the honors and punched in the five digit code. The locker popped open welcoming the students to its secrets. Inside the locker were four A-4 white envelopes and at the back of the locker was a note that read;
Please take only one per team. If there is no envelopes left you are the last team to arrive, please make your way back, you have been eliminated.
Roy took the top envelope and stepped back from the locker. He opened the envelope with a slice of his finger and pulled out two smaller envelopes along with a laminated sheet of paper. He read out what was on the laminated sheet. “Congratulation, I now offer you the opportunity to take a short cut to the final clue which will reveal the location of the finish line or take the easier long way there. Only one team can use the short cut, so choose wisely”.
Roy turned over the two smaller envelopes; one had the words Short cut written on it, the other Easier long way.
Joel snatched the envelope marked short cut and Roy opened the other and read. “Find the steps to the concrete cube that holds people in power and control of everything you see around you.”
Joel read his, “One of nine to inspire the umpire who lost his pire.” Joel noted to the others that pyre was misspelt with an i instead of a y then continued, “Look for what man treads on as he walks through the age.”
“So which one do we take?” Tony asked.
But before anyone could answer a voice behind them in a thick South African accent called out, “Hello.”
A few feet before the entrance to the locker room stood a man leaning on a white cane accompanied by a taller mean looking guy in a suit.
Tony’s eyes bulged into white golf balls as he recognized the man in the suit, he was the same man who had answered the door when he went to find out who lived in the house Richard Bursik was eavesdropping on. He ducked out of sight beside the entrance with his back to the wall.
“What are you doing?” Alicia asked.
Tony vigorously shook his head at her and mouthed the words be quiet I’ll explain later.
“Come over here,” Mauritius asked politely.
Roy, Joel, Alicia and Nadia stepped out. Tony stayed hidden.
“Isn’t there five per team? Where’s your other colleague?”
“Umm, he…” Roy stuttered.
“Joel jumped in, “he doesn’t like train rides too much,” and pointed a thumb in the wrong direction. “With the vomit flying everywhere and that… He’s now in the toilet. Wasn’t pretty.”
/> “Well, ok,” Mauritius said, then hooked his cane onto his forearm and pulled out another envelope from the breast pocket of his white jacket. “This is what I call a bonus clue,” his accent running rampart. “Up for grabs are laptops for each of you to enjoy and I’ll maybe throw in a bag of ginger lollies to settle your friends’ tummy. All you have to do is tell me the location of where the clue is pointing to.”
The four of them smiled with glee, their minds already sitting in front of their new laptops.
“There’s a catch right?” Joel asked.
“Well yes. You must tell the answer only to me and keep the clue amongst yourselves. Then return the clue to me when you are finished.”
“Sounds good,” Joel answered.
“I highly encourage you to have a strong attempt at the bonus clue. You have shown yourselves to be a very clever team.” Mauritius bid them good luck and a farewell then left with his companion in tow.
“You can come out now,” Alicia called over her shoulder. “Care to explain.”
Tony doubled checked to make sure they were gone before he came out of hiding. “Ok, sorry about that guys but I didn’t want the suit-man to recognize me.”
“Recognize you from where?” Roy asked.
“Yesterday afternoon I went back to that house where Richard was acting all weird. I wanted to find out who lived there.”
There was a pause then the other four slowly turned to the window where they could see Mauritius Cushly patiently sitting in his car waiting to repeat the speech to the next team to turn up. They slowly turned back to Tony.
Tony smiled and nodded.
“What’s the plan then?” Joel asked.
“Well first I suggest we get back on the train before it departs,” Roy said.
As on cue the first warning bell rang for the passengers to stand clear of the platform.
They exploded into a mad dash and just made it as the doors snapped shut behind them.
“We go for the short cut first. That will give us time to have a shot at the bonus clue without jeopardizing our position,” Alicia ordered then looked at Joel and added, “What do you guys think?”
“Sounds good,” Nadia and Roy said.
Joel smiled, “couldn’t have come up with a better plan myself.”